While the knowledge on age-related differences in susceptibility to episodic false memories is extensive, little is known about this phenomenon in visual short-term memory (STM). Our previous behavioural research indicated that older adults are more confident of their erroneous STM recognitions than young adults. However, unlike in episodic memory, we did not find support for older adults’ higher rate of false alarms. To further understand this specific age-difference, here we investigated its neural correlates. First, the pattern of behavioural results replicated the one from our previous experiment. Second, younger adults, when compared to older adults, exhibited higher false recognition-related activity of the visual cortex, the anterior cingulate cortex, the frontal operculum/insular cortex as well as regions within the anterior and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. No age-differences were observed in hippocampal activity. Third, younger but not older adults presented higher activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and the frontal operculum/insular cortex for false recognitions when compared to highly confident correct rejections. Finally, frontal activity was influenced by both the individuals’ performance and their metacognitive abilities. The results suggest that age-related differences in confidence of STM false recognitions may arise from age-differences in performance monitoring and uncertainty processing rather than in hippocampal-mediated binding.

尽管对年龄相关的偶发性虚假记忆易感性差异的认识是广泛的，但对于视觉短期记忆（STM）中的这种现象知之甚少。我们以前的行为研究表明，老年人比年轻人对自己的错误STM识别更有信心。但是，与情景记忆不同，我们没有发现支持老年人更高的错误警报率。为了进一步了解这种特定的年龄差异，在这里我们研究了其神经相关性。首先，行为结果的模式与我们之前的实验相同。其次，与成年人相比，年轻人表现出更高的虚假认识相关活动，即视觉皮层，前扣带回皮层，额/岛状皮层以及前额和背外侧前额叶皮层内的区域。在海马活动中未观察到年龄差异。第三，与高度自信的正确拒绝相比，较年轻但并非较年长的成年人在前扣带回皮质和额oper /岛状皮质中表现出较高的活动性，以进行错误识别。最后，额叶活动受个人表现及其元认知能力的影响。结果表明，与年龄相关的对STM错误识别信心的差异可能是由于性能监测和不确定性处理的年龄差异，而不是海马介导的结合差异引起的。与高度自信的正确拒绝相比，较年轻但没有成年人的前扣带回皮质和额/岛状皮质表现出较高的活动性，从而导致错误识别。最后，额叶活动受个人表现及其元认知能力的影响。结果表明，与年龄相关的对STM错误识别信心的差异可能是由于性能监测和不确定性处理的年龄差异，而不是海马介导的结合差异引起的。与高度自信的正确拒绝相比，较年轻但没有成年人的前扣带回皮质和额/岛状皮质表现出较高的活动性，从而导致错误识别。最后，额叶活动受个人表现及其元认知能力的影响。结果表明，与年龄相关的对STM错误识别信心的差异可能是由于性能监测和不确定性处理的年龄差异，而不是海马介导的结合差异引起的。